The Fawcett Avenue Conscripts are a group of table-top wargamers who get together every Thursday night to enjoy some gaming, some beer and a few chuckles courtesy of our hobby.

Thursday, January 12, 2017

Sixth Challenge Submission - More Alpha Legion for 30k

More lads from the 20th Legion

My Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge submissions are getting repetitive, but here is (surprise, surprise) more 30k. This is a second tactical squad for the 20th Legion, known as the Alpha Legion. There are ten fellows wearing Mark IV power armour, plastic kits from the "Betrayal at Calth" box set, and a pair of Forge World "beakie" marines wearing Mark VI Corvus Armour.

I painted a white knee plate on this crew to help tell them apart from the first bunch

The beakies are carrying special weapons, and can be swapped into the squad to create a unit of legion veteran troops as opposed to a vanilla tactical squad.

Comms trooper on the left and vexillary on the right

Some examples of the custom Alpha Legion heads from Forge World - nice dabs of character

The embossed shoulder pauldrons, transfers and a few of the helmets are upgrade packs from Forge World. The helmets are available in packs of 10, and you can sprinkle the heads from one package across several units to add a bit of additional character to the overall force. With the Alpha Legion, a lot of the custom heads have a beakie, or modified modified beakie look as well. The looks-cool-factor is high with this bunch.

As I said previously, while the plastic Mark IV armour kits are very nice and fun to work with, the Mark VI armour sets from Forge World are a pure joy, a hidden gem for Space Marine junkies like me. No skullz...great proportions...beakie helmets...and they mix perfectly with any plastic or resin spares or accessories. It is everything you get from the old RTB 01 plastic box, but with better proportions and full compatibility with all of the bits out there. I have a small and declining stash of these models, and I expect I will sprinkle them around the different forces in my collection so each one has a dash of "beakie" look to them.
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When I contemplate how much fun the "beakie" models are, I'm surprised Forge World was ever allowed to release the Mark VI armour kits. After all, they are connected to the heritage and original inspiration of the game, and Space Marine players and collectors love them - in my experience, both of those seem to be deal breakers with GW. I imagine it all played out as some kind of dysfunctional corporate situation, where the Forge World guys had to sneak the designs online...

GW corporate tool: "You are not selling those old 'beakie' Space Marines are you? You KNOW we are not 'in' to that anymore..."

FW designer: "Of course not, Liege - we would never stoop to releasing anything that popular, connected to the collective positive experiences we all shared when we got into this hobby. That is fully against..."

GW corporate tool: "...against the business plan! As it is, this whole 'Horus Hesresy' thing seems dangerously popular, and we may have to give it the ol' 'specialist games treatment' at any minute, before more players start to enjoy it..." [makes throat-slashing gesture]

FW designer: "Not to worry, Liege - ensuring the best priced Horus Heresy models are only found in box games few people are actually interested in playing is doing a trick to ensure it is still harder for a gamer to get into the Horus Heresy than it otherwise might be..."

GW corporate tool: "Right then - get back to designing that new special character, Skully Bonerz McSkullz, King of Kaos Kookiness - he will be a special release, front page of a White Dwarf, etc."

Anyway, I digress...but the Mark VI Corvus Power Armour suits ARE getting harder and harder to find on Forge World's byzantine web site, and I'm sure it is only a matter of time until word reaches GW leadership that these beautiful models are available for sale, and the sculpts are withdrawn from the web store all together...

Putting the "me" in team - the Alpha Legion...

So a total of 12 models in 28mm, good for another 60 points or so. The completion of this unit provides the absolute bare bones of a force for the tabletop - two troop choices (tactical squads) and an HQ (the chaplain). This is next to nothing under the current iteration of the 30k/40k rules, but would be plenty for a game of Rogue Trader, or even just enough to wreck things for someone as some "allies" - and with friends like the Alpha Legion, who needs enemies?

This bunch is ready for action, but will require some reinforcements before they have any impact on the table...

Up next? Well, no prize for guessing the setting, but hopefully I might change up the scale...or not...whatever it is. Be sure to check out the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge page to see all of the great submissions from folks all over the world!